The Essence of Christianity

GA 68a — 21 February 1908, Kassel

40. The Spirit of Truth from a Christian Point of View

The Gospel of John is not only a confessional writing, but it also presents a wonderful description of what makes it an extraordinarily important document for the world. The sending of the Spirit of Truth, first to the disciples, is dramatically presented to the soul. The promise of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit, the Spirit of Pentecost upon the twelve.

There are four stages to the way we relate to the Bible.

the naive, naive believers,

the clever, the enlightened,

those who interpret allegorically,

the theosophists.

It is a refreshing experience for the theosophist to discover that spiritual beings are truly behind the scriptures of religion today. Theosophy seeks to develop and unravel the spirit contained in the scriptures. [Theosophy is not a new religion, but the most faithful instrument for understanding the Gospels.

Let us now consider the Gospel of John, especially the passage where the Spirit of Truth is mentioned.

I and the Father are one. I am in you and you are in me (John 14:20). I must go to the Father, because if I do not go to the Father, the Spirit of Truth will not come to you.

So I must pass through death so that the Spirit of Truth can enter you. Only he who finds the way to the Father can proclaim the Spirit of Truth.

What I say is not mine, but the Father's. He who keeps my commandments loves me, and he who loves me keeps my commandments.

[Gap in the transcript?] If we have understood the matter of the astral body, we are satisfied. But as for the etheric body, a prayer, a meditation, if one were to say that one has grasped the prayer or the meditation, that would mean: not being able to do anything with it. Always repeating the same prayer; it is as if a plant, which indeed has the etheric body but no astral body, repeatedly uses the same force to form a leaf again and again.

And when someone gains control over their physical body and can send their blood corpuscles wherever they want, then one says: This person is forming their seventh limb, Atma.

When man has transformed a large part of his etheric body into Budhi [spirit of life = Budhi], then he knows that death is nothing, that the spirit endures; because that which is transformed remains eternal, is something eternal. He becomes aware of the victory over death. Thus man is transformed. As much as he has transformed.

of the astral body is in him of the Holy [Manas],
spirit of the etheric body is in him, of the Son, the Christ [Budhi],
of the physical body is in him from the Father [Atma].

What people heard in religious writings and messages elevated them beyond themselves.

In earlier times, if you wanted to receive knowledge from the spiritual worlds, you had to undergo initiation. Just as light and color existed before our physical eyes were formed, so the spiritual worlds are around us, even though we have not yet developed spiritual eyes.

During the earlier development of spiritual vision, the student was brought into a death-like state for three and a half days. While the etheric body was out of the physical body, it was able to absorb what the astral body had already absorbed through prayer-like exercises.

When the person then returned to the physical body, he could tell of the spiritual worlds; he had experienced that life is eternal.

In the past, only a few were able to experience the mysteries for themselves, but now it is possible for everyone. [What had been experienced countless times in the mysteries now occurred as a historical event at Golgotha. This event was so much greater because here the body really died. In the mysteries, the body was only immersed in catalytic sleep for a few days.

You have to delve into the gospel of John to understand how the miracle at Golgotha defeated and overcame death.

One is a Jew because one believes what Moses gave his people, a Buddhist because of what Buddha left behind, and so on.

For a Christian, it is not the doctrine, the content, that is important, but rather that he believes in Christ Himself, in the exalted being who was incarnated at that time. Not only did Christ bring us doctrine, but also strength.

Among the ancient Jews: blood relationship = I-relationship. Through Christ came a spiritual conception of the I. The I is already there before it is in the physical body.

Before Abraham was, the I AM (John 8:58). I and the Father are one (John 10:30),

this is not the physical father, but the great community in every individual, which has descended into every individual ego.

Instead of blood ties or blood community, spiritual community had to arise. Only by developing the small individual ego can it become selfless.

With the preservation of the blood, man has received too much selfishness. With the blood that flowed from the wounds of the Redeemer on Golgotha, the superfluous, selfish blood of sinful humanity flowed away. [This is the redemption through the blood of Christ.] Thereby man received the claim to the great brotherhood. The ego could grow beyond itself. This is the mystery of Golgotha. This will transform the earth into a planet of love.

Not without the outer, historical Christ can there be a Christ in us. [Each one must experience this inner Christ within himself. Just as the eye owes its existence to the sun, so the inner Christ owes his awakening to the historical Christ.] The miracle of Golgotha is the greatest that has occurred during the entire evolution of the earth.

What happened as fact at Golgotha flowed as life, as the Spirit of Truth, into the disciples in the mystery of Pentecost, so that they could go out and teach what they themselves had seen.

Everything was shared by the henchmen under the cross, except for the rock, which cannot be shared. That is to say: the land, the continents were divided, everything that the ego can distribute, what it can force upon itself. But the rock cannot be divided: the Paraklet, the Spirit of Truth, that is the air circle around the continents, this Spirit of Truth cannot be divided.

The freest self, which can give love as a gift to the other self, will arise through the miracle at Golgotha.